HOW D.S.O. WAS WON
BRAVE WELLINGTONIAN
(Rec. 9 a.m.)
LONDON, Nov. 5.
The citation in respect to the award of the D.S.O. to Flying Officer Thomas Francis Gill, of New Zealand, states that he was flying to Bremen one night last March when an enemy plane attacked him. His rear-gunner fired a burst at close range, and the enemy plane stalled and dived to the sea. Flying was now difficult owing to a damaged elevator and the fact that the port tank had been holed and was leaking, but Gill continued towards the target, attacked it successfully, and returned to his base.
Flying Officer Gill was attacking Berlin on another night in March when he was forced down low over the city, was held by concentrations of searchlights, and his plane was continually hit by shrapnel. Finally he broke clear, and only superior airmanship aided him in his safe return to base, almost completely out of petrol.
"His consummate leadership, courage, and determination, displayed on jnany occasions, set an exceedingly high example to all other captains," the citation declared.
Flying Officer Gill is a son of Mr. T. P. Gill, of Jackson Street, Island Bay, Wellington.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 111, 6 November 1941, Page 10
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196HOW D.S.O. WAS WON Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 111, 6 November 1941, Page 10
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